Bolt Staffing Blog

Last weekend our sales guy, Anthony, celebrated his birthday.   I decided we could celebrate with a cake at our weekly meeting.  A full blown layer cake would have been over-the-top on a Monday morning especially on the heels of the holidays.  So I made a coffee cake and here is the recipe.  We even put a candle in it and staff sang Happy Birthday….I should have taken a picture!  As my family awoke to that wonderful aroma, I must admit they were disappointed to learn the cake was headed to the office.

I’m a big fan of buttermilk in cake recipes so I searched and found this one in the trusty Betty Crocker checkerboard cookbook.

1 ¼ cups flour

¾ cups brown sugar

¼ t. salt

1/3 c. shortening

1 t. baking powder

¼ t. baking soda

¼ t. each cinnamon and nutmeg (I recommend 1/8 of nutmeg, up to your taste)

2/3 c. buttermilk

1 beaten egg

¼ c. chopped nuts

Combine the first three ingredients. Cut in shortening setting aside ¼ cup of the crumb mixture for the topping.  Add to remaining crumb mixture the baking powder, soda and spices and mix well.  Add buttermilk and egg, mix well

Spread batter into a 8x8x2 inch GREASED metal baking pan (I used a cake pan for the birthday effect).  Stir together remaining crumb mixture with nuts (I used both walnuts and pecans). Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean. Serve warm.

Our international student from Bavaria has the cooking bug.  One of the gifts he gave us was a Bavarian cookbook by Alfons Schuhbeck along with a cooking tool used to make spaetzle (pronounced shpetsleh), which is a German egg noodle that the kids say look like teeth.  Tom, with the help of Mr. Shuhbeck. has reinvented my outlook on German cuisine.  We’ve made two different goolashes, one pork and one beef, both delicious and fairly simple to make.  And then there is the cheesecake recipe which is the best I’ve ever had.  Not only that, but Tom prepared it with perfection, which is par for the course.  Sadly for us, he’ll be leaving us in just a few weeks.  Here is a recipe for a casserole he made for our poker party.  Everyone loved it, kids young and old.  It made enough for 10 or more.  It’s unique because of the combination of potatoes with pasta and definitely and one of the best recipes in my blog so far!  Served with a cabbage or carrot salad, this is a complete meal for a busy weeknight.

Swiss-Alps Macaroni

9 medium-sized potatoes

21oz (600g) macaroni-elbows

1 big onion

16oz (450g) bacon (avoid heavily seasoned or boil it first to remove smokiness)

21oz (600g) Swiss shredded cheese

25oz (750ml) cream

salt and pepper

Preparation:

Bring water in a pot to boil and put some salt in it. 

Peel the potatoes, cut them into cubes put them together with the macaroni into the boiling water. You might want to put the cubed potatoes in the water at first, because they take longer, but it depends on the cooking tome of the noodles. The potatoes take about 10-12 minutes until they are done (careful not to overcook). 

Meanwhile cut the onion and the bacon in little cubes and put the bacon in a pan at first. Fry the cubed bacon half way done and skim the fat out of the pan. Then add the cubed onion and brown the onion-bacon mixture. 

As the potatoes and elbows are done, strain the water off and add them to the pan with bacon and the onion. 

In a casserole dish make layers out of the elbow-potatoe-bacon-onion mixture and the shredded swiss cheese. 

At the end mix the cream with pepper and dash it over the layers. 

Then put it in the oven at 300°F for about 10 minutes to bake it over.  

In Switzerland it is served with apple sauce, but a salad fits perfect, too.

In my last post, I recounted my childhood struggle with ratatouille.   Now, I love it so much I decided to take it to a new level.   While we had a lousy year for fruits and tomatoes, eggplant was aplenty in some gardens and my friend Laura’s was no exception.  She gave me a few of the last crop before the freeze hits this week.  They were the inspiration for the following recipe.  I am quite proud of it since it’s one of my inventions.  It is simple and delicious and takes about an hour to prepare.    I made this for a small mid-week dinner party and my guests were so satisfied they seranaded us with their piano playing and singing after supper.

Saute the veggies, just like the grit, grit gooey recipe I last wrote.  I began by slicing the eggplant in 1/4 inch pieces and sweat them while I cooked the other vegetables.

In a thick bottom stew pot (le Creuset is ideal) Slice some pieces of pancetta ( I buy from Vella cheese in a nice thick roll) and brown, like making bacon bits.  Save leftover fat for frying the pork.

Brown 1/2-3/4  inch slices of pork tenderloin steaks

Drain any unwanted fat and put it all together in the same pot.  Simmer for 10 minutes or until the pork is just cooked.  Do not cook too long or you’ll dry the pork  and beat up the vegetables.

Serve with your favorite starch – I made it with mashed potatoes.  THIS IS DELICIOUS, NUTRITIOUS AND SATISFYING!

This recipe is dedicated to my friend James Canard who consistently has the best vegetable garden I’ve ever seen in the USA.  Mark and Mona Couchman get an honorable mention for their garlic crop this year.

Harvest season in Sonoma wine country is when my friends’ gardens yield ingredients that make the best ratatouille (pronounced rat, tat, too, eey) on earth.   Around here, we don’t just do grapes, this is tomato, pepper, eggplant, carrot, garlic and basil season and I’m all over it.

When I was a kid, my mom made ratatouille and I learned not to use the word “hate” at the dinner table (or anywhere else as far as my parents were concerned).  Instead, my brother and I coined the term “grit, grit gooey” to capture our feelings about the seasonal dish.

Fortunately, my kids don’t read my blog and the fruit has fallen far from the tree. 

They love this dish.  Remarkable but true.  Even the kids’ friends eat it.

This is the simplest recipe I’ve written so far this year.  It takes time, though, to do it right.

HERE IS THE KEY: Each batch must be cooked separately. IF YOU DO IT ALL AT ONCE, IT DOESN’T TASTE THE SAME. 

Sweat the eggplant first (slice and sprinkle with salt)

In a non-cast iron large pan:

Heat olive oil and add sliced, prepared veggies.

Cut (lengthwise) zucchini.  Cook or even lightly brown till tender, adding salt and garlic at the last 60 seconds. Set aside, clear the pan of cooked garlic and start the next batch.

Do the same process with the peppers (sliced lengthwise), and yellow crooknecks, tomatoes and eggplant.  You can make equal proportions of each.

Do the tomatoes last then put everything back in the pan.  Once re-assembled, cook only until reheated.  Serve with couscous, quinoa, rice or a combo of the three.

Vegetable oil to get the pan lubed up!

1 lb. Italian Sausage ( I use hot and regular)

1 lb. lean ground beef

Olive oil

1 large onion chopped

5 cloves of garlic minced

1 tsp. dried basil, oregano and thyme

¼ cup dry white wine

Salt and pepper to taste

Sautéed sliced mushrooms (optional, if you like, sauté separately and add to your sauce toward the end)

1 can tomato paste

2 large cans tomato sauce or more depending how far you want to stretch it!

1 can water

This is my stand-by crowd pleaser.  It’s easy.  I make it once a month.  Back when pork was raised fattier, I would drain the fat after cooking the meat.  Nowadays, it barely renders enough oil to sauté the onions.  Cook the ground meats first in a large pan, set aside, then gently cook the onions until soft, adding the garlic and spices for the last minute before the tomato sauce. 

There are variations to this recipe.  Feel free to experiment with chicken stock and make a roux for a thicker sauce.  No wine on hand, too bad for you, but no problem for this recipe; use chicken stock or water and increase spices accordingly.

My mom would make this when we went camping. It freezes well and makes for a good ice block in the cooler.

My brother is an accomplished chef  and I know how to do fundraisers.  On August 14th, we came together and put on a dinner party that raised almost enough cash to educate a child for a year.  A few friends want the menu, so here it is.  I don’t have the wine that was served, but I will try to get it and share with you.

What do Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vijay Mallya, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Elton John have in common?                           

San Francisco’s Top personal Chef Johnny Bouldt has been their chef.  The winner of this auction lot will enjoy a delicious meal cooked by Johnny Bouldt who will bring his talent and Sonoma County food connections to create an unforgettable eating/learning experience.

The evening will begin with a cocktail hour “dans la cusine” and guests will be invited to participate in a discussion and demonstration on the elusive shrimp scampi.  For cocktail hour we’ll explore just three of the many different ways a chef can prepare shrimp scampi.  Which one is the best?  You be the judge.  We’re going to take it from Europe to the Far East using tried and true methods found only hidden in a country’s culture or kept secret by the finest chef’s around.  Ask questions, take notes, or just eat buttery prawns…. it’s your call.

“Traditional” with chervil, chives, imported butter and sauvignon blanc.

“A la plancha” with smoked Spanish paprika, lots of fresh garlic and sherry wine and parsley

“Round-eye” sesame seared with sweet Japanese mirin, soy, and sichimi pepper.  

Salad Course

 Baked goat cheese tart with mixed summer greens -caramelized Maui onion, Laura Chenel goat cheese on top of fresh baked puff pastry

 Soup Course 

Chilled pea soup with asparagus, fresh cucumber, jicama and Maine lobster 

“poured tableside” and served with French bread

 Main Course

 Wine braised Sonoma lamb shank with creamy soft polenta and wild mushrooms 

and for dessert….

 Real banana’s Foster with Saigon Cinnamon “voodoo dust” and vanilla bean ice cream 

No wine country dinner party would be complete without a wine sommelier on hand …. And she was…Melanie Thomas, Merci.

There is nothing like a trip to France to motivate me to try new recipes.  The French have their hot meal at lunch time and dinner is less substantial.  During this past trip we spent several days with in Brittany where my uncle goes out fishing on his boat every morning.  The English Channel must be a nice place to live for sea life because I was amazed by the variety and bounty of seafood at the weekly market.  “Daurade” (porgy) and mackerel are common along with mussels, shrimp, crab and scallops.  I had never attempted to stuff a squid, but that’s what I did a few weeks ago to prepare an delightful lunch for my family.  Squid prepared this way is nothing like the fried calamari found at most restaurants.  I suggest buying the squid precleaned because it was labor intensive at home and hardly worth the 30 minutes that reminded me of junior high biology class.

The recipe I made is from an excellent cookbook I have called French Country Cooking, by Anne Hughes-Gilbey.  It is called Calmars Farci and it has two different versions:  One is a Catalan stuffing and the other is Provencal style.  Both were excellent.

??????????????????Traveling to France recently has my checking account on empty so we’re eating frugally for a few weeks. The Euro has been painfully higher than the dollar for several years now. Fortunately, we were able to eat most meals with family and friends and didn’t have to spend much dining out. I picked up some interesting recipes from my uncle who built a commercial catering company in Rennes that served 3,000 meals a day. He’s an excellent cook and fisherman. I’ll share more recipes and menus from our trip to Brittany and Burgundy very soon but for now, everyone is going to have to settle for this meatloaf recipe. It’s my own recipe and will serve ten people or dinner twice for less than $20.
“It’s nice this doesn’t have any hamburger.” commented Morgan as he helped himself to seconds.
The kids didn’t even notice the spinach….
Meatloaf avec épinards
1 ½ T. vegetable oil
1 chopped onion
3 cloves of chopped garlic
1 tsp dried oregano and thyme
1 ½ tsp. salt
¼ (+/-) tsp. cayenne pepper
¾ tsp black pepper
½ tsp. ground cumin and white pepper
Sauté above ingredients adding garlic and spices after the onion has begun to soften (about 5 minutes)
In a large bowl combine:
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground veal
½ pound ground lamb
½ cup tomato sauce
1/3 cup milk
1 ½ cups bread crumbs
1 ½ cups chopped fresh spinach
1 egg
Add the onion/spice mixture to the meat mixture and gently combine. Bake in a 9x5x3 inch (or larger) pan at 350 F for an hour. Let rest before cutting. Bon appétit!

Yesterday we had gyros for dinner.  They are pretty easy to make.  My husband found an inexpensive cut of lamb, chopped it in bite sized chunks, and browned them in a frying pan.  Lamb renders plenty of fat, and as I understand it, traditional gyro sandwiches are made with fatty meats.  Our meat wasn’t cooked on a vertical spit, therefore, not authentic gyro, but delicious neverltheless.  He made a Greek style salad with chopped tomatoes, artichoke hearts, sliced sweet onions, and yellow peppers, cubed English cucumber, black olives and a few leaves of dark greens.  The vinaigrette had a pinch of dry oregano.  Since we didn’t have plain yogurt on hand, he made a delicious taziki sauce with mayonnaise and a little went a long way.  With the boys dining at friends’ houses, there was plenty for us to indulge….this meal is a top 10!  We used store bought pita bread (white and wheat) and although they aren’t as good as homemade, they’ll do.  Try to find them fresh, otherwise you’ll find your gyro sandwich in a pile on your plate.

Photo by Bob David

It’s been more than a month since my last post….I’m failing in the New Year’s Reso department.  There are so many recipes and menus to share I don’t know where to begin.  On Memorial Day, I served brunch for the Consul General of France and other special guests.  We managed to dodge the rain that day and were able to eat in le jardin.  French people wll sacrifice a bit of comfort for the pleasure of dining eating outside.  After an inspiring speech, we gathered at our home at noonish and enjoyed this buffet menu.  In my next blog, I will share individual recipes and how we pulled it off while creating an environment for diplomacy and friendship.  My friend Ramona was honored to donate her wine for the occasion.  Just to show our savoir vivre, we did a buffet with a separate cheese course served a la table. 

Mimosas

?Tortilla

Breakfast Casserole

Cheese Tray (including an Epoisses, flown in from Burgundy, as it happens, Romain’s favorite cheese)

Radicchio Citrus Salad

Sliced Ham

?Fruit Skewars

2007 Nicholson Ranch Estate Chardonnay and Pinot